A very interesting discussion on NPR regarding talking with children about race and racial identity. My quick read of the twitter postings seemed to indicate (unsurprisingly) that children of White families generally did not talk much about race and racial/identity, while children of racial/ethnic minority families did. The term “colorblind” was used a lot, which brings to mind the question of what a colorblind society might actually be. There is some interesting scholarship on this concept, some of which has argued convincingly that colorblind ideology perpetuates the racism/discrimination of our current society, because it denies the continued existence of structural inequalities that are race-based. This denial of structural inequalities, then, leads to individual-level interpretation of differences.

Thus, the reason that African American and Latino youth have lower academic achievement than White youth is due to something about them, their families, and their culture. A perspective that acknowledges the continued structural inequalities would point out that unequal policies that were sanctioned and implemented by the U.S. government led to poverty, exposure to violence, and marginalization for many racial/ethnic groups, all of which are associated with lower academic achievement. Further, these experiences continue to exist and are maintained by these inequalities, that although may not be sanctioned by the government, continue to exist through individual and community-level behavior. Consider the following question: why are schools so segregated by race/ethnicity if the segregation as a government policy is outlawed?